Friday, October 10, 2008

Ok, the next one to tell me the economy is in bad shape will get an earful from me. Ever since we started work on the Gunk Haus we have had trouble with contractors. Not that they do bad work, no, the ones we hired always did great jobs. No, it is about getting to them, getting them to respond to us, getting them to show up.

On Tuesday, I called five air conditioning contractors to have some work done. One actually showed up (their office is only two minutes walking distance from our place), one called back (actually his wife called back, announcing that he would call back), and that's it.

When we did our roof in April, we had only gotten one bid, simply because that was the only contractor who called us back, showed up, and gave us a bid. Out of fairness, I have to say that we did get a second bid, but it wasn't for a metal roof, which is what we wanted.

If all those folks would come to our restaurant, and would have to wait only five minutes before any wait staff would pay attention to them, I bet you they'd be pretty upset.

I don't think, the economy is in bad shape, or maybe it isn't in too bad a shape yet. Maybe all those contractors are still spoiled from a more thriving economy, and don't want to bother with little fish.